Throwback – Arizona (né Chicago) Cardinals

Red/maroon/burgundy was a popular color scheme during football’s childhood. In fact the Cardinals inherited their original team jerseys from the University of Chicago. (The Cardinals’ birth name is the Chicago Normals.) The original burgundy jerseys faded to resemble a red from a certain vermillion bird indigenous to the area.

The current Nike uniforms have a brighter, cooler toned red (called Cardinal Red). The previous uniforms (seen from 1990s-mid 2000s) had a darker, warmer red. Almost a brick red. The away uniforms also had thin blue accent lines to correspond with the state flag. Speaking of which, the state flag was featured on the sleeves of the away uniforms. I was hoping the little flags would stay with the Nike uniform revamp but they didn’t. The blue line seen on the sleeves of the away uniforms was that made the Cardinal uniforms stand out from a sea of rather bland away jerseys.

I decided to do the uniforms that I saw the Cardinals wear when I grew up rather than the Reebok uniforms. Other than the slight color changes I didn’t see a noticeable difference between the Reebok and Nike uniforms.